Community Profiles

Get to know our students, alumni and instructors by reading about their backgrounds, interests, professional goals, favorite courses, accomplishments, careers, and more fascinating experiences. These stories cover a wide range of topics and showcase the talents of our vibrant global community.

“I think that being at SJSU has made me more open minded about all the things technology is allowing us to do. I also enjoy having the freedom to work at my own pace in my own time. I think that has been really convenient and helpful as a working professional.”

“I recommend getting a student assistant job and getting involved with whatever looks interesting to you. Join student groups, be on a committee, do things to help build your resume while you are in school. I learned so much from being the blog writer and just talking and interviewing other people about what they do, what they did, what they are interested in, what their advice is, etc.”

“It has worked extremely well for me to be able to continue to take classes and be involved in academic studies but not be a degree seeker. It is a great opportunity to continue my education and be excited about my career.”

“I am putting the [advanced] certificate to good use now at the library at New Mexico Tech. We are trying to figure out how to get our archives up and running online. The classes that I took in digital asset management are definitely going to translate over into the real world sooner rather than later.”

“Every internship was so unique and different. The greatest takeaway is that librarianship comes in all shapes and sizes! I was grateful to experience so many ways to be an information professional and I loved all of them! It will be really hard to decide where to end up after I finish the program this fall.”

“Being a part of the ALASC has been a highlight of my time at SJSU. I love the library tours that the ALASC hosts at various libraries including the one where I work at Blizzard Entertainment. Being able to go behind the scenes to see what everyone is doing that is so different has been really fun.”

“Our goal at the Student Research Journal (SRJ) is to further the scholarship of LIS and MARA students. We want to provide the opportunity for graduate students in our program to go through the peer review experience and become published authors.”

“I’ve gotten a really great foundation and deep look into what digital curation truly is. There’s a lot of perceptions out there that digital curation is just digital preservation and digitization but it’s much more than that. It’s the whole life cycle of a digital object. I’ve come to an appreciation of that life cycle and how you manage those materials. Thanks to the iSchool, SJSU, and all my professors for a great experience. I couldn’t be prouder to be a graduate from the iSchool.”

“Any exposure a soon to be information professional or information professional can have to international librarianship issues in global settings is wonderful. If you are lucky enough to go, whether for a formal or informal experience, you will learn so much.”

Dr. Michael Stephens
Associate Professor in the San José State University School of Information
Traverse City, Michigan

“One of the best things about SJSU’s iSchool is that it connected me with LIS professionals across the world and right next door. It actually took me going to a school online in California to meet and connect with LIS professionals working right here in Philly; which is weird, I suppose, but also kind of affirms the global network connectivity that librarians have going on.”

“I think the number of interesting dead people is greater than the number of interesting living people. I value the opportunity to help keep alive the memories of previous generations by arranging and describing historic records.”

“The best part about the program is being able to go to school remotely in order to continue earning an income as well as being able to actually have an internship or a fellowship to gain hands-on experience. So much of the information field is online at this point that I don’t feel like I am missing anything by not being in a classroom. If anything, it has taught me how to better interact in digital forum [and] deal with time zones and different technology interfaces.”

“All of my course work in the iSchool was challenging and relevant. The courses required the ability to learn programming languages and solve increasingly difficult problems with those languages. The teachers created learning experiences that required in-depth knowledge and the ability to solve problems in a systematic way.”

“The range of concentrations that SJSU offers was also extremely appealing. The scope of areas that are included within the field of librarianship alone is appealing. My work experience in librarianship thus far has been in a military community library and a public library. The courses available in general librarianship provided me with the accepted best practices relevant to collection development, collection management, cataloging, and research/reference needs.”

“For me, learning that libraries in other parts of the world have the same focus and goals as you do has been important to help me see the bigger picture and do better work; it has helped to widen my perspective beyond the minutia of everyday tasks, and beyond my own institution.”

“The thing that I love most about the LIS field is its practical application to just about every part of our society. Regardless of whether you are working in a library for an obscure, secluded monastery with no access to email or advanced technology or working for a high-tech company like I do at NASA and Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the skills are useful and practical.”

“I use many of the skills that I learned during my time working with Dr. Bernier and my fellow student assistants in my current position. Including, running virtual meetings online and using project management tools to managing various projects through the committee work that I do. I also learned a lot about working collaboratively with people in different geographic areas.”

“It really helps you understand the bigger picture, keep an eye on the profession, and the issues that all types of libraries are facing. We’re in a field that is constantly being threatened, so it’s important to know when and where we need to advocate for our profession and how to communicate our relevancy in our communities.”